NOTING that the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) was served three notices since 2021 to vacate the state-owned building they were occupying in Lethem, Region Nine, Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has said that if an application is made, land will be given to the party for the building of an office.

This was revealed by Jagdeo on Friday during a press conference where he noted that central government had no role to play in the party’s removal from the building which they were illegally occupying.

He noted that in the 2020 Auditor General’s report, mention was made of persons illegally occupying government property. He mentioned that at the level of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), regional officials were grilled about not taking action on the findings outlined in the Auditor General’s reports.

As it relates to the specific building in Region Nine, the Vice-President said that the Regional Executive Officer had written three letters to the party requesting that it vacate the building.

He said that the party should not pretend that this was a spur-of-the-moment issue or that they never knew attempts were made to have them removed from the state’s property.

“We have three letters here written. The first was written to Amna Ally in 2021 and then two letters were written to Geeta Chandan about the same building. Since 2021 [there were] three notices from the REO, pursuant to the Auditor General’s Report,” Dr Jagdeo said.

During the press conference, he presented documented evidence of the inventory of the region which lists the building as one that belongs to the region.

To provide clarity, he said: “So let me make it clear at the beginning, there was no direction on the part of the People’s Progressive Party to have APNU evicted from the building that they were illegally occupying. There was no direction from central government to have this done.”

Against this backdrop, he indicated that the government has seen this impunity from the PNC time and time again as they have been occupying valuable state properties across the country for years.

He said that government is open to giving the party land in Lethem if they are desirous of building an office.

“Now APNU, if they want, they can easily apply for a piece of land and we may be willing to give them the land in Lethem if they want to build an office …properly on land they own,” he said.

On Thursday, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharmlall had said that numerous efforts were made and despite notices being sent to PNC officials in Region Nine to vacate the property, they had refused to do so.

According to him, the health facility which will be housed in the building will serve the people of Lethem and Region Nine. He had emphasised that the illegal occupation of the building has stalled the construction of the health centre.

In a previous report, it was stated that materials removed from the building have been secured and are being stored by the regional authorities.